1. Field of the Invention
The present inventive concept relates to a casino table game, and more particularly, to a variation of casino blackjack which includes a side wager.
2. Description of the Related Art
Blackjack is a popular casino game, and side wagers related to the relationship of the dealer and/or player cards have been invented. These include the Royal Match bet and the Tie bet. A drawback with other blackjack side wagers is the lack of relevance to the game. For example, there are blackjack side wagers that evaluate certain cards as a poker hand, and while poker is certainly interesting, it and blackjack are unrelated from a gameplay perspective since blackjack evaluates hands based on point totals.
However, table poker is going through an exceedingly popular revival. In poker, a “bad beat” jackpot typically pays a side pot during the play of poker when a player has a good hand but still loses. This can serve to compensate the player for having a good poker hand despite the fact that the player has lost the poker game itself. Bad beat jackpots are usually funded by additional house “rake” from each poker pot. Just like in poker, blackjack players may get upset if they have a good hand (e.g. 20) yet they still end up losing (e.g. the dealer draws to 21).
What is needed, therefore, is a side bet which overcomes the disadvantages in the prior art by incorporating a wagering proposition with relevance to the underlying blackjack game. What is also needed is a way to compensate blackjack players who have a good hand but nevertheless lose, thereby preventing players from becoming frustrating and leaving the game (wherein the casino loses revenue). What is also needed is a way to leverage the existing popularity of poker by providing a poker-like feature within the game of blackjack without neglecting the fundamental properties of blackjack.